Gender & Bible Translations

Today, I discovered something: gender neutral translations of the Bible exist. To some, that may seem obvious, because they have been around for a few years. But it was new to me.

A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought it was a big deal to have gender neutral translations. I’m a female, but growing up in church, the use of a general masculine never bothered me, in the Bible or elsewhere. But as a technical writing student, I know that gender inclusive language is the norm, and I can understand why using gender neutral language in Bible translations can help women not feel excluded.

My recent study of the book, Why Not Women?, has made me aware, though, of the need for Bible translations that are accurate in gender neutrality. The author writes that some critical verses have been translated incorrectly in many translations. At times, gender specific language has been introduced when the original was gender neutral. Case in point: 1 Tim 3:1. The authors says that the Greek uses a gender neutral word for “anyone” and that no masculine pronouns or verbs occur in the text. Yet, the verse is often translated, “If aynone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task” (NIV). The author arugues that a more accurate translation is, “if anyone sets his or her heart on being an overseer, he or she desires a noble task.” (I’d argue that it’s better to make the sentence plural, so “he or she” and “his or her” can be avoided. Since it’s not standard English, I’m not big on using “they” or “their” with a singular word like “anyone,” but it’s fine in some translations that want to use informal English.)

I don’t know Greek, so I can’t vouch for the Greek of 1 Tim 3:1 being gender inclusive. But it seems like an important difference to me. As a result of that discovery and others, I’ve started looking at getting a Bible like the TNIV or NLT that are gender inclusive. I think both of those, though, change the use of general masculine words in the original text to gender neutral English words. I’d really prefer to find a translation that stays true to the gender use of the original text – gender neutrality when it is neutral, gender specific when it is specific (even if the specific use of male meant “male and female”).

Typing that out, I wonder if that IS what I really want. I thought I wanted it to be a literal translation of the use of gender, saying “man” even if the implied meaning is “man and woman” and only using “man and woman” or other gender inclusive language when the original text was gender inclusive. But now that I think about it more, I might prefer a translation that says “male and female” when it means “male and female”, even if the original text was “man”. That way, I don’t have to guess from context whether it should include females or not.

For more info on why a gender inclusive Bible translation is a good idea, check out Mark Robert’s TNIV Blog.